(Irish) Concert flutes
Daniel Briggs
such instruments are not all that difficult to come by on the american side
of the atlantic. At least, we can chose between a small handful of
artisans. The thing is, most of what I've seen seem to be the keyless
variety. An instrument in D will certainly work well for traditional Irish
tunes, but I'd really like to play in with the local English band as well.
They don't use *too* many flats, but being able to play in F is essential,
and even Bb would come in handy occasionally. A second flute in C would
probably serve for that sort of music, I guess, but I find it a bit ugly to
keep switching instruments just to get a couple of flats. Neither does the
prospect of half-holing four flats from the tonic thrill me, however.
So -- maybe I can have both? I've been doing some library research, and
pouring over what catalogs I can get. I've seen simple system flutes with
up to eight keys on them. I believe that the keys are for D#, G#, C, F.
(Four key models). An extra F for the right hand. (Five key models). And
Bb plus low C and C# for the eight key models. (I think! -- the books are
at home.) Anyway, a four key flute would be great for traditional music,
and the full eight key flavor would seem plenty for nearly anything. Now
for some questions:
First of all, how badly do I lose for having all this hardware tacked onto
a defenseless little wooden tube? It was mentioned that any extra hole in
the tube, even when closed, can disturb the flow of air through the
instrument. I suppose at some level I'd be trading purity of tone in the
tonic against flexibility. Can anyone tell me just had bad this effect is?
When one is playing purely in D, how closely would the sound of a good
Irish concert flute resemble that of a keyless Irish flute? The whole
point of this exercise, of course, is to get that beautiful haunting sound
so characteristic of the Irish style. I own and play a very nice Boehm
system flute, but it just isn't really suitable for Irish music. The
slight click from the pads is annoying, slides are difficult, and the usual
Irish ornamentation is just plain wrong. On the other hand, if I have to
give up much tone to get a flexible Irish instrument, I might as well just
blow off the keys, stick to the sharp keys with a keyless flute, and play
the English stuff on the Boehm flute. After all, I'd be playing it mostly
on the keys anyway, even on an Irish concert flute.
I live out in the boonies, and I'm not likely to demo any of these
instruments any time soon. I'm almost certainly going to have to buy mail
order, on the strength of recommendations and reputation. So if anyone
has first hand experience with these questions, I'd love to hear it!
My next question concerns availability and price. As I said, most of what
I've seen from US sources have been keyless flutes. Dave Williams does
sell some flutes that seem to be what I'm looking for, but they are very
pricey. No doubt very good as well, but they're outta my league. His
eight key model, with sterling silver keys, is $1800. _Timber, the Irish
Flute Tutor_, claims that one might expect to pay 500 pounds for a decent
antique Irish concert flute, and 100 pounds and up for a modern one. This
is sounding more plausible. I've got letters out to all the american
artisans listed therein, and will probably shotgun the list of UK artisans
pretty soon. Again, has anyone dealt with makers of such flutes?
Recommendations?
The next question or two concerns mostly nomenclature First, does anyone
know exactly what constitutes an "Irish" flute? As opposed to an "English"
flute, for instance? I've seen things in the catalogs referred to by both
names that would seem to be identical, at least insofar as number of keys
and fingering is concerned. In fact, what I've been calling an "8-key
Irish concert flute" would probably be called a "pre-Boehm classical flute"
by most of the rec.music.early crowd. Is there some subtle difference
here? There have been some hints that the Irish flavors might have
somewhat wider holes, and are optimized for better tone in the lower
registers than the early classical flutes? A somewhat breathier tone,
perhaps? Also that the Irish flute are optimized for the usual keys of
G/D/A, as opposed to the classical flutes which were as close to equal
temper as they could make them. Does this make sense even for the (fully
chromatic) 8-key Irish concert flute? Another thing that I've wondered
about is why keyless or 1-key Irish flutes are almost never cross fingered
and get most of their chromatic notes via half-holing. On the other hand,
the 1-key baroque flute appears to be nearly the same thing, yet it gets
almost all its chromatic notes via cross fingering. Again, this has
something to do with hole diameter? (And yes, I know that a lot of the
baroque cross fingering was far from perfect, which led to the development
of the classical flute.) Just for yucks, I tried some of the baroque cross
fingering on my flageoletes, and got absolutely nowhere. There's clearly a
difference there somewhere!
Speaking of flageoletes, I'll throw in one last factoid that really blew me
away. I came across one several references that the (English, six holes on
top) flageolet in fact post dates the recorder! It didn't show up "in the
modern form" until the (early or late) 1700s or so. This is the same
critter that later became the tin whistle. Early flageoletes were made of
wood, and looked like little recorders. Supposedly they evolved for the
amateur market, as they are indeed easier to play than the recorder. They
picked up some of the slack when the classical flute edged out the recorder
among the serious musicians. What I'd like to know is, "what were people
playing before that?" One book has pictures of fipple based whistles from
10,000 BC. Fipples have been around forever! Likewise, simple six hole
flutes have been around just about as long, though they weren't really
considered serious musical instruments til the Hotteterre family developed
the baroque flute in the early 1600s. Given all these available
ingredients, I find it absolutely inconceivable that people weren't playing
fipple based six hole whistles prior to 1700. For want of a better term,
I'd call that a flageolet. Anyone care to guess what the defining property
of a "modern" flageolet might be?
Now that I think of it, I'll toss in one more question. Anyone know where
I could come by a *french* flageolet? Four holes on top, and two thumb
holes on the bottom. Dunno that I'd get a whole lot of use out of it, but
it would be fun play with!
Cheers, everyone.
--
| Daniel Briggs (dbr...@nrao.edu) | USPA B-14993
| New Mexico Tech / National Radio Astronomy Observatory | DoD #387
| P.O. Box O / Socorro, NM 87801 (505) 835-7391 |
Support the League for Programming Freedom (info from lea...@prep.ai.mit.edu)
Rich Holmes
>among the serious musicians. What I'd like to know is, "what were people
>playing before that?" One book has pictures of fipple based whistles from
>10,000 BC.
Well, since you're a morris dancer, I don't know if I'm telling you
anything you don't already know and/or if I'm answering your question
properly but... the three-hole pipe and tabor seems to have been
nearly the universal dance instrument in England for some centuries,
from what I understand. For morris and otherwise. It's shown on the
cover of Kemp's Nine Daies Wonder, and the late-16th century comic
actor Dick ... uh... help me out here ... oh hell ... anyway, he used
to accompany his own dancing with pipe and tabor.
--
- Rich Holmes ri...@suhep.bitnet or
Syracuse U. Physics Dept. ri...@suhep.phy.syr.edu
How's my .sig? Call 1-800-WAR-LORD
Tom Keays
>variety. An instrument in D will certainly work well for traditional Irish
>tunes, but I'd really like to play in with the local English band as well.
>They don't use *too* many flats, but being able to play in F is essential,
>and even Bb would come in handy occasionally. A second flute in C would
>probably serve for that sort of music, I guess, but I find it a bit ugly to
>
me. I can play chromatically (the accidentals are the keys) and yet the
holes are open for traditional Irish playing.
>First of all, how badly do I lose for having all this hardware tacked onto
>a defenseless little wooden tube? It was mentioned that any extra hole in
>the tube, even when closed, can disturb the flow of air through the
>instrument. I suppose at some level I'd be trading purity of tone in the
Irish players using Baroque English flutes often take the keys off the
bottom two holes (the C and C# holes that are normally open but sound
by closing a key). Doesn't make sense to me to lose those two notes,
but the players say that it improves the sound. I gather that they
are talking about the quality of the bottom D note, which is often
slightly overblown to get some extra harmonics out of it (it is called
the "hard D".)
>tonic against flexibility. Can anyone tell me just had bad this effect is?
>When one is playing purely in D, how closely would the sound of a good
>Irish concert flute resemble that of a keyless Irish flute? The whole
>point of this exercise, of course, is to get that beautiful haunting sound
>so characteristic of the Irish style. I own and play a very nice Boehm
>system flute, but it just isn't really suitable for Irish music. The
>
Joannie Madden, an American woman who has won the All-Ireland prize fo
pennywhistle and, I believe (although my memory is possibly faulty)]
plays a silver concert flute for Irish music. While all the owners
of wooden flutes are slightly disapproving, Joannie's playing is
excellent. This is a growing trend in Irish music. The silver
concert flute is becoming more acceptable in sessions.
>My next question concerns availability and price. As I said, most of what
>I've seen from US sources have been keyless flutes. Dave Williams does
>sell some flutes that seem to be what I'm looking for, but they are very
>pricey. No doubt very good as well, but they're outta my league. His
>eight key model, with sterling silver keys, is $1800. _Timber, the Irish
>Flute Tutor_, claims that one might expect to pay 500 pounds for a decent
>antique Irish concert flute, and 100 pounds and up for a modern one. This
>
Well you get what you pay for. L100 for a modern flute is likely to be
a lesser quality instrument. I've played quite a few and less expensive
instruments don't compare to the more expensive instruments. Don't know
why but they do.
>The next question or two concerns mostly nomenclature First, does anyone
>know exactly what constitutes an "Irish" flute? As opposed to an "English"
>flute, for instance? I've seen things in the catalogs referred to by both
Michael Copeland models his flutes after English Baroque flutes. He
has done quite a bit of research on the taper of the bores, and came
up with he thinks to be the ideal shape for Irish playing. So Irish
flutes are such because of the type of music played on them, not the
flute itself. Irish flutes are usually English or German made because
that is who made them. In the states, the best makers were centered
in Boston, New York and Philadelphia.
--
Tom Keays htk...@rodan.acs.syr.edu or lib...@suvm.acs.syr.edu
"If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research."
attributed to Werner von Braun
Tom Keays
>In article <1992Mar31....@zia.aoc.nrao.edu> dbr...@zia.aoc.nrao.edu (Daniel Briggs) writes:
>
>>among the serious musicians. What I'd like to know is, "what were people
>>playing before that?" One book has pictures of fipple based whistles from
>>10,000 BC.
>
>Well, since you're a morris dancer, I don't know if I'm telling you
>anything you don't already know and/or if I'm answering your question
>properly but... the three-hole pipe and tabor seems to have been
>nearly the universal dance instrument in England for some centuries,
>from what I understand. For morris and otherwise. It's shown on the
Rich's comment reminds me of something I saw on display at Indiana University's
Maxwell Archives of Traditional Music (or whatever it's called, been
a while). I saw a display of all these metal or ceramic three hole
whistles. I couldn't fathom how they were played (having not blundered
into Morris at this point). My memory of these whistles is that some
of them dated back several thousand years. I was impressed then, and
even more now. I'd love to be able to try one out; I can see me
approaching the curator with my cheapo Generation 3-hole in hand as
proof of my worthiness. RIGHT!! Thanks for reminding me of them;
I'd almost forgotten about them. When I attend the Midwest Ale this
year, I intend to see if I can find them again. I hope they're still
on campus somewhere. Anybody know.